Archive for Jose Castillo

Initially, I was not going to include the Padres in this series about bullpens on non-contending teams. I realize that sounds ludicrous, because I don’t actually expect the Padres to hold their own against the Dodgers and Rockies. My focus on selecting teams, however, has been more about effort to contend than about the current makeup of a given roster. Still, even with their pursuit of players like Corey Kluber and Miguel Andujar and all of their emerging young talent, the team could very well be sellers at the trading deadline.

That means incumbent closer Kirby Yates could find himself pitching the latter part of the season someplace where he will have fewer opportunities for saves and fish tacos. There is a case to be made that Yates would be worth keeping around for the 2020 season when the Padres could be in a much better position to contend. However, if they wanted to trade Yates in order to fill another need or get reinforcements for the farm system, they have enough depth to provide a replacement closer and still have quality relievers for other roles.
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Prior to Thursday’s game in Colorado, fantasy owners may have had few outward reasons to be concerned about Kirby Yates. Since becoming the Padres’ closer after the July 19 trade of Brad Hand to the Indians, he had not blown a save and tallied 20 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. Yates finally got that first blown save on Thursday, when he gave up Ian Desmond’s two-run walk-off homer. Given that it was at Coors Field, owners may be willing to forgive Yates.

While the 31-year-old is not among the most highly-owned closers, not many of his current owners are sitting him. Yates is 59 percent owned in CBS leagues but benched in 14 percent of leagues. On Fantrax, he has a 57 percent ownership rate but is being sat in only 8 percent of leagues.
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After a difficult latter half of May, Felipe Vazquez seemed to get himself in the clear with some effective performances to begin this month. Vazquez’ first three games in June resulted in 3.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts. That brief string of encouraging outings was snapped on Wednesday, as he nearly frittered away the three-run lead the Pirates gave him to start off the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks. Jon Jay’s two-out, bases-loaded single cut the lead to one run, and the tying run — represented by Deven Marrero — was just 90 feet from home. After an intentional walk to Paul Goldschmidt, Vazquez escaped the inning by striking out Jake Lamb.
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